Gary J. Douglas

Mr. Douglas is a nationally renowned trial attorney & member of the Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame recognized around the country as a trailblazer in the field of Products Liability and Environmental Law. He has tried hundreds of cases and obtained billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements.  

Most recently, Mr. Douglas was the lead trial counsel in the first ever AFFF/PFAS trial pending in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, which resulted in an eve-of-trial settlement of $12.5 billion with the 3M Company on behalf of hundreds of water providers/utilities whose water has been contaminated or is threatened by the forever chemicals PFAS – the largest water contamination settlement in American jurisprudence history. There are few lawyers in the world who are as well-versed and or as experienced in PFAS litigation as Mr. Douglas. Mr. Douglas and his team‘s efforts in this case are the subject of the documentary film featuring Mark Ruffalo, How to Poison a Planet, to be released in 2025.  How to Poison a Planet Trailer

Mr. Douglas has been litigating PFAS contamination cases for a decade now and is the first lawyer ever to successfully try a PFAS contamination case, hitting the trifecta with three consecutive wins against DuPont in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, resulting in a $690 million settlement on behalf of thousands of residents of Ohio and West Virginia. His achievements against DuPont were the subject of the blockbuster Hollywood movie Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, as well as of the bestselling book Exposure by Rob Bilott. 

Mr. Douglas’ career has been a series of “firsts,” taking on industry giants on behalf of “the little guy,” including the first win in the nation against the automobile industry for a defective airbag that killed a six-year-old boy. He followed that with the first victory in the history of the State of New York against the tobacco industry, securing a verdict of $20 million for the death of a 58-year-old smoker. Mr. Douglas achieved notoriety when in the span of just a few weeks he obtained back-to-back $8 million dollar verdicts against two different pharmaceutical industry giants: Johnson & Johnson in a medical device case and Merck in a case involving the drug Fosamax. 

Soon after that Mr. Douglas scored the first-ever win in the Xarelto litigation with a $28 million verdict against the drug manufacturer Bayer in state court in Pennsylvania on behalf of a woman who suffered internal bleeding as a result of taking the blood thinner Xarelto. 

Mr. Douglas has appeared on local and national television including ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and others, and his verdicts have been reported on in major national news journals, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. 

In his spare time he tours the world in a rock ‘n roll band, sharing the stage with the likes of the legendary Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, among others. Their music can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming services or visit them at www.garydouglasband.com.